VIctorian nights
by nobodyinpartic
Summary: Darkest powers set in Victorian, English country side. When Chloe has been admitted to the sanitarium, an unlikely friend will come to her rescue, but even he isn't all that he seems. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

I struggle to open my eyes against the pulsing pain in my face. The first thing I see is an unfamiliar smooth white ceiling. Startled, I bolt up in bed and struggled to look around. My movements are restricted and I notice that I am restrained by tethers to the mat. That's when it all comes flooding back to me.  
The hospital, I repeat out loud. My movement must have caught the attention of some of the nurses and they come flooding in with warm concerned smiles. "How are you feeling deer?", they coo. I force the most sincere smile I can when I say that I'm feeling fine. Of course you are deer, your father will be expecting you home soon. My father! I exclaim, just a bit too loudly. Is he back in town? Oh, no dear, he's still tied down with work in East Germany, but he sends his best wishes and is providing support so that you may return home soon. My heart sinks at that. It's been over six months since I last escorted my father to the train station. As I'm smelling the engine smoke and feeling the grime of the train station in my memory, the nurses continue to talk as if I wasn't there. They say how it was just a matter of time that I cracked and no woman should have that type of pressure on them. One of the more modest looking nurses chirps in her two cents that "a school is no place for a woman". That's when I snap back into the conversation. What do you mean? I ask, with a sharp bite in my words. If you are suggesting that the simple tasks of reading and attending lectures could do this to me then _you_ must be the delusional one. Each nurse shoots me a surprised and equally hurt look before shuffling out of the room and whispering snippy comments under their breath. I told you she was mad, said one. No, no, all rich spoiled girls are like that. I decide not to pay any more attention to them and flop back down onto my mat. The pain in my face has spread into a throbbing headache, but before I can think about it much I fall back into unconsciousness.

I wake up hours later to a sharp pain in my arm. upon opening my eyes I see an elderly doctor retracting a needle from my inner elbow. He notices my eyes are open and shoots me a quick and insincere smile. She is awake, he exclaims. Miss Saunders, I would appreciate being able to ask you a few questions about your experience yesterday. I close my eyes and try to ignore him until I notice a large amount of shuffling from the other side of the room. What I see is a group of ten or so young men gawking at me. Horrified I look away quickly only to come face first with my own reflection. My skin is deathly pale, there are dark circles under my eyes, but most remarkable is the deep purple and blue bruise which takes up half of my face. The eyes looking back at me begin to water and I imagine what I must look like to the people observing me. To my further embarrassment I notice that there are men in the room who I recognize. The most prominent of which is Sir, Derek Souza. It took so much effort for me to be accepted into St. Josephs University. It was virtually unheard of for a woman to be accepted to study there and I had blown it. Who better to relish in my failure then him, the most cruel man I had ever met.

In my mind I guess I saw this whole situation going in a different direction. Yes, I would be the first woman to have attended St. Josephs University and I would initially be met with skepticism, but I always believed that eventually I would be able to prove myself and earn the respect of the faculty and students. This (up until yesterday of course) was possibly my greatest misjudgment. Professors would refuse o acknowledge my questions, Ignore my input and decline to grade any of my assignments or independent study work. I was denied access to the library, bathrooms and dining facilities, but I refused to give up. I could tolerate being ignored, because after I had proven myself a worthy student, it would all change. It wasn't until I met Sir Souza that I ever doubted myself. One day after failing to get my instructor to look at my research on the connection between folklore and linguistics, I stomped down the curved stairwell and right into his chest. Thrown off balance we both tumbled down a few steps. Aggressively picking up his things, he shot me the most intense glare I've ever seen directed at anybody. It was like his entire face was in a snarl. Before I could even say that I was sorry, he stormed off. I had been treated badly this year, but never so openly and to be honest, it scared me. As I stood to leave I noticed that I was no longer wearing my pendant. It had been a gift given to me as a child by my mother before she died. Since then I had worn it so often that it was almost like an extension of my body. The absence of its weight on my chest made always made me nervous and I began searching frantically for it, but to no avail. Along with it, my papers from this morning were also missing and I came to the conclusion that Sir Souza must have picked them up in his haste.

The next day while I was eating my packed lunch out on the grass, an enormous shadow enveloped me. His height must have been masked by the stairs the day before because when I realized how tall he was it alarmed me. I had never seen a person so tall or broad in the shoulders before. Most academics at this school were wiry with profuse facial hair and beady eyes which would dart frantically behind their glasses. Not Sir Souza though. Everything about him was blunt and aggressive. I gaped at his piercing green eyes until I noticed him shaking papers in my face. Are you even listening? He barked. I must have picked up your papers when you attacked me yesterday. I chocked down my immediate thankful response and settled for scoffing at his comment. You think I attacked you? For what? The pleasure of your company? Surely you don't think that highly of yourself, I said. Feeling more then a little smug at the wittiness of my comment I let a smirk crawl halfway up my face. Suddenly his irises enveloped the green of his eyes and he flung my papers over head. After he had stormed off I collected the pages, which had rained down in every direction. My eye caught on something unfamiliar which was written on my work. Every page, paragraph and sentence of my work had been critiqued, and not favorably...After the first few lines of self esteem shredding critiques, my eyes were too blurry to continue reading. I sunk to my knees and took in quick deep breaths. Once I had composed myself I skipped to the very end, where Sir Souza had written a short comment. Miss Saunders, there is absolutely nothing redeemable within this research. It is my opinion that you don't have the intellectual capability to perform in academia. Honest and to the point, it was absolutely true. I kneeled there for almost an hour absorbing every word of it. For the rest of the day I noticed him every where. Always with a look of condemning judgment, his eyes would stare right through me. Now, just two days later, those were the eyes which were locked onto mine from across the room.

Damn...

So, here I am. My hair is un-brushed, my face and arms are bruised all sorts of inhuman colors and I'm strapped in my under gown to a hospital mat. I couldn't possibly look worse, or have a more inappropriate audience for it. What are they doing here, I ask while pointing to the mob of my classmates. I'm looking desperately at the doctor for some kind of explanation. He puts on his patient voice as he is addressing me. It's the soft, slow tone you would use with a child or a frightened animal. A good friend of mine is an instructor at the University and asked if I would be willing to show his class around the sanitarium wing of the hospital, he explains. I hope you don't mind, I thought it would be nice for you to have your classmates visit.

Nice, I repeat. I can't help but have a bitter expression at that. Now, if you don't mind Miss Saunders, your condition is one of paramount interest and we need to ask you some questions about what happened yesterday. This is the part where they all take out their notebooks and pencils, like I'm some sort of lab animal about to be dissected at their educational whim. The class looks at me expectantly and I realize that this will have been the first time any of them will have listened to what I have to say, so I begin with, "it started after lunch…"

Due to an earlier confrontation, I was feeling a little flustered when I arrived at my science lecture. It had occurred to me as I was entering the lecture hall that I had yet found my necklace, which I had lost a day before. The necklace has always been very important to me. I used to have nightmares, but my mother had given me the necklace as a charm against the things which used to frighten me. When she died, I began wearing it every day to remind me of her. As I started telling the story I began thinking of my mother. The way she used to hum as she walked, or how she smelled that day we went out to the beach…

What did you see? Asked one of the boys. What?...In the classroom, what did you see that caused you to go hysteric?

Oh...Like I had said, I was a little flustered from an earlier confrontation and coupled with the loss of my necklace, I was feeling pretty off. During the lecture I thought I heard a man talking over the professor. He wasn't saying anything in particular, just mumbling to himself. When I looked up to scold him he looked really surprised. He asked very excitedly if I could see him. I refused to acknowledge him because I thought it would interrupt the professor, so I ignored him the best I could. However, this only enraged him more and he began screaming nonsense at me. When I looked over at him again he had burst into flames. I was so afraid, that I fell backwards, yet the man seemed not to be in pain at all. He kept walking towards me urging me to listen. I ran from the room, but he followed. I sprinted up to the bell tower where I saw a woman sitting in a chair. When I called out to her she looked over at me and I noticed that her neck was completely broken and jutting out from the skin underneath her throat. I screamed for someone to help, but the creatures enveloped me. I remember trying to get away from the flames by crawling out onto the window sill, but I lost my footing. I remember feeling an enormous pressure wrap around my arm as I jumped. There was a moment of weightlessness where all I could feel was the momentum of the jump. As I looked down to see the pavement below, I suddenly swung back towards the building. My last memory was the impact of me hitting the outside of the window.

I looked up as I finished my story to notice the doctor and my classmates vigorously jotting down notes, all except for one that is. Derek stood there in the corner of the room with his eyes directly on me and an incredulous smile peeking on one side of his mouth, as if to say "what a whack job". It was then that I had realized my mistake in telling my story uncensored. I had only confirmed their suspicion that I was crazy. This wasn't a group of my peers coming to visit me in the hospital, it is just a class and I'm the specimen. Even if I was released from the hospital there was no way they were going to let me come back to school. The doctor, who's name I still didn't know is asking me specifics about the nightmares I used to have as a child, then pointing out to the class that this could be an indication that I had a history of mental illness. If you'll excuse me doctor, I said, I would like some time alone. He looked reluctant, but ushered the students from the room anyway. Before he closed the door I called out that I would like a nurse to visit again. Again? He repeated. Yes, I said. I was a little rude to the nurses before and I would like to apologize. Miss Saunders, I regret to tell you that there have not been any nurses on this wing of the hospital for nearly ten years…I, or my assistant will be back soon to meet any needs you might have and with that the door clicked shut.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, friends. Thank you to every one who reads this story and a special thank you to all who review and have put my story on their favorite list( although, I am still trying to figure out why). I do appreciate editing, so if you have some suggestions I'm open. Do keep in mind though that I am fully aware of how I am butchering history. Nothing about the speech patterns and linguistics is accurate and I've only really studied social structure and clothing styles, so bear with me.**

**A note about the future of this story, there will be explicit chapters in the future and I will give you a fair warning in case you want to skip over them. Also, this story and its chapters are turning out to be longer then I had originally expected. I'm beginning to feel a little bit like the Wal-Mart of fanfics….**

**I do not own the characters or story they belong to Kelly Armstrong.**

I must have dozed off after the Dr. left, because I woke up sometime in the evening to the sound of a lot of commotion in the hallway. There is a buzzing in my head and my entire body feels sluggish. My vision is blurry but I manage to spot another bandage on my arm from where I must have been injected with a sedative.

The noise in the hallway is getting closer and its beginning to sound familiar. It's the kind of rowdiness that only inflicts people who have had too much alcohol. I close my eyes thinking that I might be able to feign sleep, but the urge to drift off is too strong. As I'm clenching and unclenching my fists to stay alert, two men enter the room. From what I could see using the moonlight from the window, they were both dressed in shabby street clothes.

"She's awake" one said with delighted surprise. Suddenly feeling very lucid, I attempted to sit up only to realize I was still tethered to the bed. The motion only suited to delight the men more as they started removing their over coats. "S-stop!" I called "I'll scream" I added in a shrill voice.

"Oh, is that so? Do you know where you are little missy? There is a lot of screaming that goes on in a place like this". As he was speaking the other man walked around to the other side of me. I turned my head and saw the glint of a knife in his hand. I began screaming and struggling violently against my restraints. The mat sunk with the weight of one of the men. As, he is straddling me, his hips make an effort to grind into mine, so that I can feel his excitement. He reached out his hand to take the knife from the other man and points it between my eyes. Breathing heavy, he leans in close to my face and whispers "Now little missy, you had better play nice, or I might miss and cut your beautiful skin". "I'll tell…They'll put you away" I managed to breath.

His knife dribbled down to the collar of my dress as he said "No one is going to believe the crazy girl who sees things. Hell, maybe I'm not even real!" he laughs. Just then his knife catches on a piece of lace and begins tearing. "Don't have too much fun" the other man calls "I'm next." I close my eyes tight and pray that I'll go under again, but my heart is beating so fast that I'm shaking. Within a second, the weight which pinned me to the mat is gone and there is a large crash on the other side of the room. I open my eyes to see my assailant crumpled on the floor. The other man is looking towards the dark corner of the room with fear. A large figure steps from the shadow and I realize that it is a shape I know.

"Derek!" I call out, but he isn't looking at me. Instead he's got a death glare on the man standing next to me. "We weren't trying to do nothing", the man proclaims hysterically. "She was having a fit, we were just trying to restrain her". Something like a growl crawls from Derek's lips and it's enough to send the guy scrambling behind a desk. Derek grabs the unconscious man by the back of his jacket and practically tosses him at the other man. "Get out and take him with you. Consider your services here unneeded". The man stutters that he didn't have the authority to fire him, but one look from Derek and he was dragging his friend hastily from the room.

There is a moment of silence which is only filled by my shuddering breaths. I realize that I'm crying and that Derek is being very still and quiet. "Are you okay" he says almost inaudibly. I mean to make some kind of joke to lighten the air but all I get out is a croak before I completely break down and start sobbing. Derek begins undoing the buckles around my wrist, when I look up to meet his eyes. I don't know if it's the moon or how distorted my vision is, but his eyes seem to glow like an animals with the light of the fire on them. I was dumbstruck with how beautiful they were, but was brought back to reality when I heard a scraping sound in the hallway. I immediately imagined that the men were coming back for revenge and dragging some type of hook against the floor as a warning. Leaning over me to unfasten my other wrist, Derek comments under his breath that we should take care of that soon. "Take care of what? What's going on, why are you here?", I asked with increasing excitement. Meanwhile I can hear staggered breaths and scraping noises coming closer from down the hallway.

"I'm here" he said " because I work here". "I'm here specifically right now, because I followed the trail of dead animals". He says all of this while having a tone that suggested he was using a great amount of patience. "It would probably be for the best if you send them back now", he said while undoing the last of my tethers. I sit up on the mat and shoot him a look as if _he's_ the crazy one. I can't see him very well in the dark but he seems comfortable enough to locate the lanterns and light them. It's then that I notice that the thing I have been hearing in the hallway is actually an opossum which seems to be suffering a major bullet wound. I stand in awe of what amazing pain it must be in, before I hear a crash at the window. At first I see a white branch scratching at the glass, but upon further inspection I realize that it's actually what is left of a bat wing. Its small maggot eaten face meets mine for a split second before I let out a squeal and stumble backwards over the mat. I begin scrambling towards the door, but Derek catches me by the waist and pulls me back to my feet.

"Stop wasting time and release them!", he says impatiently. Of course, the way he says it makes this whole situation seem perfectly rational. My response however, is slightly less so. I start screaming louder and fighting to get away from his grasp. I flail until finally I make nail to face contact. He curses, but doesn't drop me. Instead, he pins both of my hands behind my back and clasps a firm hand over my mouth. "Okay, you are going to calm down now", he says slowly with with a strained voice. Considering there aren't many options for me at this point ( outside of peeing on him or attempting to nip at his hand ), I decide some deep breaths couldn't hurt. I close my eyes and feel my chest rise and fall. In the silence I also notice that there is now more then just two animals making their way towards me. Shivers run up my body as I feel what I guess to be a dogs tongue lick at my feet. "Focus", he urges. I'm not at all sure what I am supposed to do about any of this, but I try anyway. Squeezing my eyes shut, I imagine all of the animals falling still. I pretend that I have the power to release their souls to the after life and imagine their spirits flying away. Derek's body relaxes behind me, so I open my eyes.

There are at least ten animals scattered through out the room and hallway representing nearly every stage of decay. I turn around to look at Derek, who seems relieved. He shoots me a near half smile before his eyes dart down and he looks away quickly. It's at this point that I notice how much of my night gown was ripped by my attacker. I Imagine how I must have looked with my breasts out for display like some market produce and flush bright red. Derek fidgets awkwardly as I try to hold the pieces of my night gown together. "Pardon me", he says pointing in the general direction of my nudity with one hand and fumbling in his coat pocket with another. I have to admit that I actually get a great amount of pleasure from having made him uncomfortable, so I decide to hold my night gown a tad less modestly.

Still fumbling with his coat, an envelope falls from his pocket onto the floor. A golden chain follows Derek's hand from his pocket and I realize that what he's holding is my necklace. Forgetting modesty I snatch it desperately from his hands. "You stole it! Do you have any idea how worried I was that I had lost it?". Something like a glimmer of guilt flutters across Derek's face and he tells me that he found it in his papers and knew that it was a magical device. "I was having a hard time telling what it was, but it all made sense when you told your story this afternoon. I'm sorry I couldn't get it back to you sooner".

It's strange, he almost seemed civil…This was like a completely different person then the man I bumped into a few days ago. All of that seemed so long ago. I sigh and say "it's okay, Sir Souza". In the grand scheme of things it seemed so trivial compared to everything else that had happened recently.

Seeing my mood shift, he turns away and starts going through some of the drawers. Pulling out a lady's night gown, he remarks that it is actually Dr. Souza, but that I can call him Derek. There is something a little smug and playful about the way he says it and I smile. I notice the opened letter which fell from his pocket and bend to get it. I read the top and realize that it is addressed to my home and has come from the village where my father is staying. I go to pull the letter out of the envelope, but Derek grabs it from me before I can. "I'll give it to you in the morning" he assures. "It's too late for this sort of thing and you'll need your rest for tomorrow". He refuses to let me argue and I end up accepting some water and the grand privilege of going back to bed. "Sir…I mean Derek, will you be around?". Picking up the last of the animal corpse he said that, he would be sleeping in the office down the hall and that he would be assisting Dr. Davidoff tomorrow with my final assessment.

I felt incredibly relieved as I relaxed onto the mat. I would get to read my fathers update and would probably even be released from the hospital tomorow. Despite all of this, the image of crawling dead animals and the word necromancer rang through my mind. Hopefully I would be able to ask Derek about it tomorrow, since he seemed to know something about it. I took one more look at my pendant and noticed that the color looked fainter then normal.


	3. Chapter 3

I was restless the next morning while Dr. Davidoff was attending to me. We went through a routine where he would ask me a question and I would try my best to guess what answer he wanted. "Now, miss Saunders, since you seem to be doing so much better I'm just going to ask you a few more questions". I perked up and choked back a grimace while I tried to plaster a look of contented ignorance on my face. "About those things you saw the other day" he asked, "you don't suppose they were real do you?". "NO, no', I shook my head childishly. " I was probably just stressed out or having, uh…woman problems". This trick worked all of the time. Mention anything about the mysteries of a woman's body and men would make their own concussions. Dr. Davidoff looked satisfied with the answer, but added his own two cents "that any woman would crack in that type of environment". My attention was drawn away from trying to maintain my expression by the sight of my father's letter poking out from his pocket. "Is that a letter for me", I asked with genuine cheerfulness. Dr. Davidoff hesitated, then nodded his head slowly as if to say yes. "I'll give it to you after you've gotten ready for this evenings event". "Event?" I beamed. "What kind of event?". I wasn't usually so excited to be around large groups of people, but obviously if he thought that I was stable enough to attend a party, then I was being released. We finished up our session with a few more questions, which I answered as agreeably as I could. I bathed myself like the Dr. had instructed and waited eagerly in my slip for him to bring me some clothes.

Derek was the one who came in carrying my gown for the evening. I flashed him a bright smile and wished him a good morning. His jaw was set and he wouldn't meet my eyes, but I chalked it up to the fact that I was un-decently dressed. As he laid out the gown I was going to be wearing, I noticed that it wasn't one of my own. Before I could say anything he interjected that it was something Dr. Davidoff had picked up for me. The dress was definitely something of man's taste. It was soft pink with low exposed shoulders and covered in lace from the bust to the train. Derek commented that he would be outside the door if I needed him. As I started putting on the under layers, of the gown it became apparent to me that I might actually need to take him up on that offer. The dress had a corset which needed to be fastened in the back….

I fastened as many of its hooks as I could so that I would be modestly covered and called Derek back in. last night excluded, this was the most naked I had ever been in front of a man. Derek didn't seem too comfortable with it either. His large fingers struggled to grasp the cords. "Now what exactly is it that I'm supposed to do?", he asked after successfully capturing all the cords in the back of the corset. "You need to pull the strings tight, so that you are able to knot them over the hooks. It's kind of difficult to pull the chords so you should do one side at a time". He gave one test pull using both hands, which nearly pulled me backwards. "You might want to brace yourself" he smirked. I pretended to be offended, but it was nice to see him be playful. His face relaxed as if he were remembering something and then his features sunk back into a solemn expression.

As the day went on, I began feeling more and more anxious for my father's letter. I was more dressed up then I had ever been in my entire life. My father would have been proud. He had tried for the last few years to get me to dress this way to attract a husband, but I had always been so stubborn, always insisting on something modest. From the hallway I could hear a girl's voice making demands. Outside of the men from last night, Dr. Davidoff and Derek, I hadn't heard of anyone else staying on this side of the hospital. I pressed my ear up to the door and was able to hear at least two or three more girls talking with her. Their voices passed me, but a single pair of shoes that I recognized to be Dr. Davidoff's, stopped at my door.

I ran back to my mat and sat down before he had gotten the door open. It is so amazing what desperation will do to us. I had been disobeying my house keeper for years, but all this man had do was wave a letter in front of my face and I was completely compliant. It is good that you are sitting, he started off. "I'm sorry, but I must be the bearer of bad news". He outstretched my father's letter towards me and I took it gingerly. I had been waiting all day to read it, but now I didn't need to. The first words written were, "To the daughter and house hold of Alexander Saunders, I regret to inform you of your loved ones untimely death". It was as if a switch had been flipped in my head and the letter floated from my hands to the floor. I couldn't hear or feel. All that was real was the green piece of parchment lying at my feet. A hand waved in front of my face and I realized that it was Dr. Davidoff salvaging what was left of my eye makeup from tears. I could see his mouth moving, but all I heard was distant incoherent mumbling. Bits and pieces of his words were coming through the fog in my mind. "We'll be taking care of you now" and "you won't have to worry about being alone after tonight", were all I could get out of what he was saying. He pushed me to my feet but I couldn't feel my legs and my knee's fold under me. I did however, feel the floor.

After my spill Dr. Davidoff half carried half dragged me down the hall. When we breached the door to the outside there were two carriages waiting. Peeking out from one carriage was a girl with long blonde hair, who was quickly pulled back by another dark haired girl. As Dr. Davidoff directed me to the carriage it suddenly dawned on me that he still expected me to go to the party. Snapping back to reality, I dug my heals hard into the mud. "I don't want to go", I yelled. "Just let me be alone!". Dr. Davidoff grabbed me roughly by the wrist and pulled me into the empty carriage. "Haven't you been listening to a thing I've said you dumb girl?" he snarled. He yelled behind him for Derek to come along and then climbed into the carriage. When Derek finally arrived , his eyes dropped down when he saw me. Dr. Davidoff threw a handkerchief at him and instructed him to clean my shoes. "She's one our best items and she's nearly destroyed her outfit with dramatics. I thought I could expect more from a girl of a good family", he scoffed.

It was dawning on me that something more sinister then a party was going on tonight. "Due, to the death of your father, the hospital will be selling off your custody", Dr. Davidoff said coolly. "Girls with your condition do better when they are functioning in a house hold and can be looked after". "Firstly" I said "you can't sell off my custody. I'm sure that my father made arrangements for me and seconded what does any of this have to do with the party?". The Dr.'s eyes dipped down my low riding collar with a smirk and I understood what he was planning. I was going to be sold off to someone as a bride, or worse. I had heard of parties like this, but I always thought it was foreign mistresses who were being sold. The parties were rumored to happen in a secret location every few years, so that wealthy bachelors and even married men could have their pick of new woman without having to go through the trouble of courtship. "Your fathers death was fortunate timing" Davidoff commented. "If you had come to us a few days later, we might have had to keep you locked up until the next event".

I kicked at Derek who was wiping the last bit of dirt from my shoes. He shuffled to the open seat next to me without a word. I had thought Derek was trying to help me. I trusted him, but he was just preparing me to be sold. That was the worst betrayal of all. Noticing my hands Dr. Davidoff produced a pair of white gloves from his coat pocket. "You should put these on" he called. "We want you to look your best". I looked up at him skeptically, but he assured me that if I was not bought tonight that I would have to be committed to isolation in the sanitarium. "The thing is Miss Saunders, is that your fathers will can't be found". Your uncle has already taken possession of your father's assets but has refused to take you in as a ward. You have nowhere to go, but where we tell you to". I had toured the sanitarium once with a mental illness class. It was nothing but a small cement box with enough room for a water basin and a man to lay down. I recalled the chains which hung from the wall...

I put on the gloves carefully and tried hard to blink back my tears so that they wouldn't ruin what was left of my makeup.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, friends! Sorry it took me so long to update. I hope the extra length on the chapter will make up for that. I didn't have much time to edit this chapter, so please feel free to send me your comments and suggestions on how to make it better. I love your reviews and hope you continue to read my story.**

**P.S I don't own the darkest powers characters or story. My work comes nowhere near the quality of the original.**

Our carriages pulled up to an old mansion known as the Edison house. The house was connected to the science department at the university and hosted an elite men's club. I felt a pang of shame in remembering how I had once aspired to be its first female member.

Dr. Davidoff shifted in his seat with excitement and hastily straightened out his jacket collar. A well dressed servant came over to open our carriage door and escort us in. Dr. Davidoff and Derek exited first. I was alone in the carriage and contemplated my chances of opening the adjacent door and making a run for it. As exciting as it sounded I knew there was no way I'd be able to outrun them in my outfit.

I had often thought that the clothes assigned to woman served an evil ulterior motive and now I knew what it was. Similar to how primitive people would trap their mates in a cave while they went out hunting, modern woman were subjected to the constraints of debilitating shoes, heavy cumbersome dresses and painful corsets. Men have the nerve to call us week and stupid, but were the ones who are chained down by their perception of vanity.

Derek's open palm reached into the carriage as if he had been waiting for me to take it. I was tempted to slap it away and climb down on my own, but just like escaping, I probably wouldn't be able to manage in this dress. Instead I took his hand with a falsely gracious smile and made sure to land my heal on the toe of his shoe as I stepped down. His eyes winced with pain, but he managed to keep his composure.

Looking up I noticed the doorway as well as the windows here crowded with men trying to get a look. As the other girls were being unloaded from the carriage Dr. Davidoff started in on a grandiose introduction about how glad we were to be here. I thought he was speaking sarcastically, but when I looked at the faces of the other girls they were all lighten up with smiles. The outspoken dark haired girl from earlier came up behind me as if to swipe a loose strand of hair from my shoulder, but instead grabbed onto the lock and pulled me toward her. "Now listen here you little skank. I've been waiting months to get out, so don't think you're special just because you're Dr. Davidoff's new play thing" she hissed.

The whole incident must have been masked as an innocent friendly gesture to the crowd, but she made a point of keeping my gaze until she had moved back into line. The smiles on the other girl's faces seemed strained as they watched the girl rejoin their ranks. Dr. Davidoff began ushering us into the building. Dazed and confused, I had no other option then to follow him. I felt a light touch on my elbow and jumped. I hadn't been paying attention to what was going on behind me and I was afraid it was the girl from before.

Instead it was a blonde girl with a kind smile, dressed in a powdery blue gown.

"Don't worry about Victoria", she said gesturing towards the dark haired girl. "She's just jealous that she's not going to be the main showcase".

"Why?" I blurted out as she turned to go. Turning quickly on her heals "Oh! Well you see", she began with a devilish grin and pulled me in closer for a mock sense of privacy. "In order to be in the main showcase you need to be well….ugh, pure" she giggled.

_Pure?_ I thought. What does that have to do with anything?

I must have looked confused, because she tried clarifying by saying "you know, _Puuure"_. She used a few exaggerating hand gestures to make her point and then started rambling on about how they were originally going to just put her up for sale on the main stage anyway and hoped nobody noticed, but….

"It's none of her business!", Victoria shot in. "Let's go!" she said while pulling the other girl along and shooting me a sideways glare.

The blonde girl stopped suddenly and turned on her heals towards me. "Elizabeth" she called. "My name is Elizabeth" she said, "but you can call me Liz" with a blaring smile. One final tug from Victoria and they were off.

Her happiness surprised me. How could anyone be so cheerful in such a horrible situation? Looking around, all the girls were trying very hard to look presentable. Despite the absurdity of where we were, it all looked so familiar. It occurred to me that this was like the brothel of debutant balls.

I had gone to plenty of parties where I was expected to meet men and settled down. I had even had a few marriage proposals, which I found completely ridicules considering I barely knew any of them. My father had insisted that it was important I get married so that I would be taken care of, but I never took the opportunity seriously. To me marriage was just another form of prostitution. Men would pay for a nice wedding band, ensure that she had a decent living and then were entitled to sex with her whenever they wanted. He always scoffed at the comparison but it sounded a lot like prostitution to me.

Thinking about my father broke my composure and I had to struggle at keeping my face neutral. Most of the men were still drinking and finishing up their card games, but a few had started meandering over towards us. I saw mostly younger men, many of which I recognized from my University, being the first ones to approach the other girls. The older men who had taken notice that there were females in the room were leaned back in chairs as if to scrutinize the products laid out before them.

I noticed quite a few stares had landed on me and I cringed when I realized what their expressions were conveying as their eyes traveled up my body. As more of the men came forward to get a better look at us, I heard Dr. Davidoff and another man call their attention away and remind them that the auction wouldn't start for another thirty minutes.

I saw Derek from the corner of my eye begin herding the other girls into another room and I decided that this might be the only chance I'd have to escape. I began slowly detaching myself from the group and looking around the room for a possible escape plan. I noted a stair case on the opposite end of the room and started casually moving towards it. Of course my plan probably would have gone over better if I wasn't a big pink beacon of lace and fabric moving across the floor. I did however manage to reach the begging of the stair case before someone finally stopped me. It was an attractive young man about my age with dark blonde hair and almond shaped eyes. I had never seen someone who was another ethnicity and was really taken back by it.

" Excuse me" he said. "Are you alright? I thought all the girls were getting ready in the back". His smile was charming and innocent which stood out amongst the other men. I swallowed hard and tried to pry my senses back.

"Yes that's right" I said " but I uh…need to umm…" I pointed up the stairs shyly as if to indicate that I was too embarrassed to say bathroom.

"Oh! I'm sorry" he said. "I shall let you be on your way then. My name is Simon by the way". He gave me another award winning smile. "I guess I'll see you at the auction", he called in a mockingly suggestive voice. Hoping that wouldn't be true I climbed the rest of the stairs without incident.

Now that someone knew where I was I had to find a way out of the house as quickly as possible. I searched all the rooms on the way to the bathroom, but all of them were either locked or didn't have windows which could open. Coming out from one bedroom I spotted a man who gave me a questioning look. My heart thudded in my chest as I said in my best innocent girl voice "well, that's not the bathroom". Thankfully the man chuckled and had no problem accepting my excuse. He pointed me in the direction of the bath room, which was unfortunately a way I had already come. With him watching me I was stuck having to actually go into the wash room. The only window in the room was too small to allow me through.

I sunk down in the resting chair in a near panic until I saw that there was another door tucked away at the end of the room. I got up hurriedly and found that it led to a linen closet with a large window. I began tugging at the latch with all of my strength until it finally cracked open enough for me to pull the window open. As I laid my hand on the window sill my feet were swept up from under me and I found myself in a familiar vice grip.

"What are you trying to do; kill yourself?" Derek asked. Obviously he didn't see the brilliance of my escape plan like I did. Instead of answering I squirmed and kicked as much as I could trying to release myself from his arms. I managed to get a hold on the window frame and pull myself closer, but it was no use. I slumped in his arms with defeat and he deposited me on the floor like a disobedient child.

"You could have killed yourself!" he exclaimed."That's at least a twenty foot drop onto cobblestone. What were you thinking?".

"What was _I_ thinking? Really? What I was thinking was that it might be nice not to be sold off and raped tonight! I can't believe I trusted you! I should have known that all of that necromancer nonsense was just a lie".

He crouched down to my level and lifted my chin to meet his eyes. "It's not what it looks like" he assured me. I almost sputtered a laugh at that. "Oh, it must be my puny brain again. Do enlighten me Dr. Souza. How exactly am I misinterpreting being sold off like a piece of meat?

Derek took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't really work for Dr. Davidoff. I've been investigating him for the last few months".

"You're an investigator?" I asked hopefully. "No, not exactly..." he said. "I had just noticed some strange patterns while researching the hospitals policies on the mentally ill and started looking into it"

My heart sunk to my stomach as my last shred of hope vanished. "So, you're pretty much powerless? Why haven't you brought this to the police?" I yelled.

"Half of the men down there are police. The local authorities have had a heavy hand in expanding these activities. I don't think they know about the supernatural side of the operation though. There are a few of us, who are trying to take it down from the inside" he told me.

"What about me?" I asked. "Am I just supposed to play the happy sex slave until you figure things out?"

His eyes darted away as he said that he'd figure something out. "For now though, we need to get you back down stairs".

I could tell this was non-negotiable and followed him back down the stairs.


End file.
